I guess the Pharangulates are more fun than we are. I has hurt (sniff). Maybe we should offer some gelato?

--------------The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny is alleviated by their lack of consistency. -A. Einstein (H/T, JAD)
If evolution is true, you could not know that it's true because your brain is nothing but chemicals. ?Think about that. -K. Hovind

I am sorry louis. You are one of my favorite internet acquaintances and a highly original thinker which makes your absence doubly painful to me. First, because I did not take care to be respectful of your position and potentially soured you on something which has the occasional chance of assembling ideas in a unique enough way to produce profound insight and the frequent chance of assembling ideas in such a way as to provide entertainment and comic relief. My own obliviousness and impulsiveness prods me to random behavior which I seldom even note except in hindsight such as this. Oops doesn't really take the place of a sincere apology so I offer one here.

I have often wished for a world where I wouldn't be taken seriously but the reality is that if I did offend you, all I can do is say that I would not have done so intentionally and accept that the outcome is my responsibility. If there is some way to set the record back I will do my best with full attention and respect.

Second, in those occasional chance arrangements of previously unconnected or fuzzy ideas which inspire new connections and original thought, you have played a major role in facilitating some of the most creative and profound (to me anyway) insights which have ever come to me. I actually owe you a debt of gratitude for your willingness to provide your thoughts on this forum though I hoped I could thank you over a pint or 30 in london some summer soon rather than while I apologize for being an ass.

I am trying to figure out when I can go to the UK in the next two years for several reasons, one of those is to buy you a beer. Though, to be honest, I might not have decided to figure out the trip just to buy you a beer. But once I had an excuse to go, it was already on the hopeful itinerary.

Anyway, I didn't see your flounce but I hope you added a flourish or two. Flounces, after all, are one of the ways we leave our marks on the world and the people in it.

I will go and look for it. If it had nothing to do with my crusade against PZ, and the accompanying oblivious impulsiveness which characterizes so much of my internet behavior of late, then I still owe you an apology because iirc, I told you I would get back to you with a reasoned response and never did.

That may be a good thing in the overall state of affairs actually. I have tried to summarize my point many times since then and I think I have managed to successfully communicate the explanation to somewhere in the range of zero people who weren't already inclined to understand.

At any rate, If it wasn't me, then I hope whatever it was is something small enough that the balance tips to entice you back.

If none of that works, I've talked to Rich and he said sheep are easy to procure down in his neck of the woods. He could assemble a photo montage or something maybe?

:) Or he could just send you one of his collections of older montages.

Also, if you didn't have a youngin, I would call you a baby or something. But, having three myself, though they're done being youngins, I am well aware of the unique weight it adds to the calculus of effort-reward. No time and no tolerance for stupidity are like little baby albatrosses that hang off a parent's neck for 15-18 years.

Hope to see you in London someday.

--------------Who said that ev'ry wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it
Look what it's done so far

FTK, I just read it. What louis did is not what you do. Maybe flounce needs some qualifiers.

I just discovered that I didn't compose a thoughtful response until the very last page and it was tangential to the OP and posted well after the issue had faded from the front page.

I did the responding elsewhere and sort of felt like it counted as fulfilling my obligation here. I really do owe Louis an apology because I baited him with empty rhetoric and never made a substantive response to him at all. When he, according to the norms of this site, which I too share, demanded I provide substantiation, I simply didn't. I was too busy over at the other place assembling a documentary of sorts and just plain failed.

I pulled an FTK and no one else called me on it. (Well not very many people.) The ones who actually did make an argument sort of legitimized my empty value judgement by using it as a jumping off point. I can understand why that irritated louis. He's a guy that will admit he's wrong but it damn well needs to be clear what he is wrong about.

I didn't even name it. I just barged in and said his beliefs were not just wrong but potentially evil. Nothing specific. If he identified with PZ, he has the right, I think, to be upset. Or at least to expect me to abide by the norms of this forum. Provide an argument at least.

And I guess I really do owe everyone an apology.

In the future, I will refrain from posting in involved threads late at night or on my phone. And I will keep my rants at Talkrational where they don't stand out. And I'm sorry about not responding to louis when I said I would.

--------------Who said that ev'ry wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it
Look what it's done so far

Maybe he just needed a break from the insanity of trying to justify Darwinism. Course, considering this is Louis we're talking about, all the mental gymnastics prolly turns him on....that and all the talk of goats.

--------------"Evolution is a creationism and just as illogical [as] the other pantheistic creation myths" -forastero

Oh, and BWE, I have no idea why you worry about people who disagree with your stance on PZ....he's an ass...he is problematic to Darwin's message due to his militant, illogical stance on...well, on pretty much everything. Have a backbone, man.

--------------"Evolution is a creationism and just as illogical [as] the other pantheistic creation myths" -forastero

Maybe he just needed a break from the insanity of trying to justify Darwinism. Course, considering this is Louis we're talking about, all the mental gymnastics prolly turns him on....that and all the talk of goats.

--------------You're obviously illiterate as hell. Peach, bro.-FtK

Finding something hard to believe based on the evidence, is science.-JoeG